Uncle Trev and the Whistling Bull Read Online Free

closed my eyes, and lay very still. If I concentrated hard enough, I might float out the window and into the sky.
    â€œHe found my Louise cake, didn’t he?” She was standing at my door, shaking the tin, the one with Queen Mary and King George V on the lid. “I don’t need to open it,” she said. “I can tell that somebody’s been into it, helping himself to my Louise cake. I suppose he gave you a piece, too?”
    â€œJust a little bit,” I whispered.
    â€œThen he’s eaten several pieces on his own. Typical of the man. I’d have given him some to take home, but now he can go without. I’ll teach him to go through my cake tins.”
    I listened to Mum getting the fire going, putting the kettle on, making herself a cup of tea, then the creak of her chair.
    â€œWhat did he have to say for himself?” she called. “And don’t try to tell me he said nothing. My remarkable ears can hear every word he said echoing round my kitchen.”
    â€œHe said the new neighbours are moving in today. He saw them carrying their furniture inside.”
    â€œWhich new neighbours?”
    â€œThe elephants.”
    Mum was standing at my door. She gave me a piece of Louise cake on a plate. “Now don’t go making a mess with crumbs in your bed. What’s that about elephants?”
    â€œUncle Trev said there’s a family of elephants moving into Swift’s old place. They’ve got enormous furniture, a huge kitchen table, and gigantic beds and –”
    â€œAnd you listened to that nonsense?”
    â€œAnd Uncle Trev said they’ll keep us awake dancing at night, because he remembers the time at the Bay when you had neighbours who were elephants, the Prendergasts, and they kept your mother awake dancing all night, then they moved up the Kaimarama and built a swing bridge and went to the sole-charge school. And they came back into the Bay for Steamer Day and chased out the lions because they’d eaten a couple of kids for giving cheek.”
    â€œIn all my born days, I’ve never heard such a farrago of rubbish.” My mother felt my forehead. “You’re running a temperature from listening to that man’s stories. If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times never to believe a word he says.”
    â€œIt must have been fun, being a kid in the Bay.”
    â€œThings weren’t easy,” said my mother. “And they weren’t anything like what your uncle said. Now can you just be quiet for a minute while I enjoy my cup of tea? Why it is that a Christian body can’t come home without finding the place overrun with wild animals, cake tins empty, dishes needing washing all over again – I’d like to know.”

Chapter Five
    Why Old Tip, Old Toot, Old Satan, Uncle Trev, and Old Gotta Henry All Bark at the Dark
    â€œScared of the dark?” said Uncle Trev. He’d laughed so much, his face was red. “We’re all scared of the dark.”
    â€œMum’s not.”
    â€œDon’t go telling her I said so, but I think the dark’s probably scared of your mother.” Uncle Trev looked over his shoulder.
    â€œIt’s when I wake up,” I told him. “In the middle of the night.”
    â€œSame with me,” said Uncle Trev. “But I’ve got Old Tip.”
    â€œI know.”
    Uncle Trev shook his head. “What I mean is that Old Tip’s more scared of the dark than me.”
    â€œI thought he’s brave.”
    â€œThat old coward’s so scared of the dark, he barks half the night. It puts the wind up me, and the next thing I know I’ve started barking, too. That sets Old Toot and Old Satan barking, and before you know it they’ve woken up Old Gotta away over at his place, and he joins in. The night’s a bedlam out our way with everybody barking.”
    â€œIs Mr Henry scared, too?”
    â€œOld Gotta Henry, he’s